Michigan mom seeks 'respect' for her 3 missing boys, asks a judge to declare them dead

ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) — The mother of three missing Michigan boys asked a judge Monday to declare them dead nearly 15 years later, saying they deserve the respect that they didn't get at the end of their young lives.

“We may not have their bodies but their life still meant something,” Tanya Zuvers testified near the end of an unusual hearing in Lenawee County in southern Michigan.

She agreed when her lawyer asked if she wants death certificates so she can put formal dates on a headstone and feel some closure.

“Any loving father would not have killed them. I owe them the respect,” Zuvers, 58, said.

Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton disappeared while they were with their father, John Skelton, at Thanksgiving in 2010. They have not been found, despite countless searches of woods and water in Michigan and Ohio and tips from across the country.

Police clearly believe John Skelton is responsible, though he has not been charged with killing his sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5. By November, he is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to return the boys to Zuvers, the only conviction in the saga.

“I’m confident they’re deceased,” said Larry Weeks, who was police chief in Morenci, a town near the Ohio border, and initially led the investigation.

Weeks and others in law enforcement explained the case to Judge Catherine Sala, who will determine this week whether to declare the boys dead. Investigators, they said, chased countless leads, even checking for DNA on a baseball found at an Ohio campground where Skelton's phone gave off signals in the middle of the night.

Police in 2018 responded when three sets of bones were found in Montana. But that, too, didn't pan out.

“If my sons are out there in the world with someone they don’t know,” Zuvers said, “one of them ... would just tell the person next to them, ‘This isn’t mom or dad. I know that if you call this number, my mom will answer it.'”

She said there's "no doubt” they're dead.

Skelton, 53, appeared in court by video from prison and said he didn’t want to participate.

“Anything I say isn’t going to make a difference,” he told the judge, speaking through a TV screen a few feet above Zuvers.

Skelton and Zuvers were having problems in fall 2010 and living apart in Morenci. The boys were with their father at Thanksgiving but were supposed to go back to their mom the next day. Instead, they were gone.

While Skelton was in a hospital with a strange ankle injury that same day, investigators entered his home and found a mess, with broken glass, severed appliance cords and a noose hanging from the second floor. A Bible was open with a verse circled.

A note apparently left for Zuvers said, “You will hate me forever and I know this," FBI agent Corey Burras testified.

“That was his passive admission to killing the children,” Burras said.

Skelton was confronted by his church pastor about the brothers, the agent said.

“I sent them home," Burras said, quoting Skelton as referring to heaven.

Investigators found nothing when they searched an old schoolhouse in Kunkle, Ohio, at Skelton's suggestion and a dumpster in Holiday City, Ohio. Claims that the boys were handed to other people for their safety were also false, Weeks said.

Skelton's computer showed searches for whether rat poison can kill people and instructions for how to break a neck, the police chief said.

Det. Sgt. Jeremy Brewer of the state police said he has frequently visited Skelton in prison.

“He would talk about everything under the sun: his family, the weather, sports, prison life,” Brewer testified. “But if I ever directed the conversation about why I was truly there or about the boys he would shut down. ... He didn’t trust anyone.”

In Morenci, a plaque with the boys' names and images is attached to a rock at a park near Bean Creek. It says, “Faith, Hope, Love.”

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